To say the Gulf is in trouble is an understatement. Decades of misuse have left the Gulf’s natural bounty vulnerable. But we can act. We must. And fast. Here’s why:

Every year, like clockwork, hurricane season comes to the Gulf Coast. For residents, this means more than stocking up a storm kit with new batteries and fresh water. It means wondering, “Will this be a big one?” In an era of changing ocean temperatures, rising seas, and increasingly severe storms, all-too-often, the answer is “Yes.”

Every day, Americans fill their cars with oil—much of which is produced offshore underneath Gulf waters. There the rigs sit precariously perched tapping into a resource that is flammable, explosive and toxic.

Every spring, rainfall washes nitrogen from agricultural fields along the Mississippi River surging into the Gulf. The mega-fertilizer leads to algae blooms that die and send oxygen levels plummeting. The result? A vast lifeless area, thousands of square miles wide.